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Just a few days ago I was about to venture out.

Out to Calgary and Saskatoon, with the elbow of the trip being Kindersley.

First I headed to Calgary for a meeting.  Then back to Kindersley.  The next day to Saskatoon and back to Kindersley.

I realize some sales people and world travellers move across that much dirt in mere hours. 

I’m not one to do a lot of travelling.  Most days I head out just a few kilometers to the Post Office.  Not much more to the grocery store.  And coffee breaks  happen in between those two destinations.

So, with more than a few kilometers covered in the last three days, I was pleasantly surprized with the cost of the trip.

Oil prices have gone down substantially. 

But, the downturn in oil prices means our town is affected adversely.  Belts have been tightened and spending is slowing. 

At the same time, with gas prices going down, I could afford to hit the road.

While our belts are being tightened, our gas tanks are being filled.

I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry.

In grade school, I remember reading a story.

I’m not sure why the title stayed in my mind.  Perhaps it was the words of the title that were a little bigger than the usual “Tom, Dick and Harry” story.

“CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CARLA”

After many decades the title is as fresh as ever.  However, the story is not.

So I headed out on a search for the story. 

I’m so thankful for the age of technology.  In a search engine I typed in the title of the story.  After scrolling through a number of irrelevant search items, I came to the words I was looking for.

The story was contained in a book called “All Sails Set.”  The description of the book mentioned that “All Sails Set” was a Grade Six reader written in 1948 and used throughout the 1950’s and into the 1960’s.  The content of the book was said to contain “higher moral values”.

Supposedly there are very few original copies available, although I would think with all the schools that used the reader, there would be more.  One enterprising book seller listed the volume at $5,000 for a pristine copy.

I was not about to pay $5,000.  All I wanted was the text to the story I had read as a kid. 

I checked out information on the publisher. 

Copp Clark is now a financial firm – their publishing now deals with their current concerns and they are no longer a general book publisher. 

In the midst of my search I did find that the old archives of Copp Clark  (when they were a general book publisher) are housed at McMaster University.  I contacted the archives and am now, hopefully, in the last part of my search.

Stay tuned.

How do I learn?

That was my evening-sleep cogitation (which just means I was distilling my thoughts overnight, trying to figure this one out).

I started in a school atmosphere that taught the times table – memorized still to this day.  By my high school graduation a change was happening.  In some of our classes, we were sitting around distilling the truth by sharing our informed ignorance in teacher facilitated discussions.

My generation rebelled against a style of learning that was systematized and doctrinaire.  We were free thinkers.  We wanted life long learning that was propelled by our desires.  We wanted daily learning that was driven by our feelings.  We wanted to be the first person to learn something that no one else knew.

Now we have come to our senior years.  And we realize that we have great holes in our learning.  We realize that what we felt wasn’t always what was true.  We realize that we have to build on others’ knowledge.

And we realize that we passed on the extremes of our search for truth to our children and grandchildren.  Some days, I am saddened by our example.

A younger generation may miss the big truths of life, the guidance of others and the foundation of the ages.

The Chinese church was supposed to die out in 1949.

An atheist communist government took power.  Taking away power from the church meant in essence – no meetings, no books, no unregulated worship (a three self church movement which was to regulate the church arose which was looked on as government puppet).

So things went underground, house churches sprung up and the church began to flourish in the midst of suffering – a topic that I am currently researching for some in our church.

Recently a Chinese church leader outlined to Francis Chan “The Five Pillars of the Underground Church” (a group of 100 million believers with no megachurches, or celebrity pastors)?

David Timms reports on the answers in his latest blog posting:

1. Read the Bible, deeply and constantly
2. Pray a lot, personally and collectively
3. Be a missionary; everyone shares their faith
4. Expect the miraculous; know that the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead abides with us today
5. Embrace suffering, for the glory of God

The fifth "Pillar" surprised Chan the most.  In a culture that quits all too easily and that whines all too frequently, the idea of celebrating or embracing suffering seems very foreign.

Small things seem to distract us. Big things prove utterly daunting. But brothers and sisters in China embrace their suffering, knowing that this converts into eternal reward (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

Perhaps we fail to suffer well because we embraced a gospel of prosperity and favor. When tough times come, when people resist or reject our faith, when things turn sideways in our congregations, we cut and run.

Or perhaps we fail to embrace suffering, because the other four pillars are so pencil-thin in our lives. God’s Word is not planted deeply in our souls, we pray little, we share our faith with nobody, and we have ceased to expect miracles.

What pillars guide our lives and our churches?